(Adds PN's statement)
Former St Paul's Bay Labour councillor Alfred Grima has apologised for a comment on Facebook in which he publicly expressed a wish that a Somali migrant kidnapped EU commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom instead of another Swedish politician.
In a Facebook post yesterday, Mr Grima published a world news Times of Malta story about the incident and commented "It's a shame it wasn't you Cecilia Malmstrom".
In the incident, Somali gunmen tried to kidnap a Swedish opposition politician in an ambush in which she and another woman were wounded and two men were killed.
After this story was uploaded Mr Grima apologised for his comment saying that after reflecting on what he wrote, he believed it was too much.
"I publicly apologise to her," he wrote.
Mr Grima contested the general elections on behalf of the Labour Party.
His Facebook page contains a number of other entries which are anti-Islam and anti-irregular migrants.
He told timesofmalta.com later "I am definitely not anti-Islam. In fact, I have written in the past in favour of Muslims. However, I disagree with extremism."
PN calls on Prime Minister to take action
In a statement this afternoon, the Nationalist Party said Mr Grima’s statements were deplorable and the worst type of politics.
The fact that a PL candidate felt comfortable using such language and obscene attacks continued to confirm how the way the Prime Minister was addressing the illegal migration problem was sowing the seeds of xenophobia and racism.
What Mr Grima wrote, the PN said, was the result of the actions taken by Prime Minister a few weeks ago when he tried to push back immigrants, a move that was stopped by a European Court of Human Rights decision.
The Prime Minister had also attacked Commissioner Malmstrom and then said that his British humour had not been understood.
Apologies after such deplorable statements were not enough and the Prime Minister was expected to take concrete action about Mr Grima and whoever used similar language.
Unless such action was taken, the Prime Minister would be once again be confirming that, for him, anything goes.